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»The Top 30 Albums of 2010 - Fashionably, fabulously late, our favorite music (and believe me, there was a LOT) of 2010, the year that some have called the best year for music ever. And only some of those fools work here. Plenty of usual suspects, lots of ties and a few surprises that I won't spoil, including our unexpected #1.

Efrim Menuck wrote a riff. Sure, it's in 7/4, the vocal pattern is unpredictable and it carries for over six minutes, but it's an honest-to-god riff: direct, discernable, and catchy. Welcome, Efrim. This is our punk rock.

Backpedaling after 2008's floundering 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, Menuck's post-Godspeed You! Black Emperor collective now thrives as a five-piece. New drummer David Payant continues the prominently heavy drumming of 13 Blues' livelier bits with much-needed energy and elegance, allowing the band to progress without sacrificing the polished brooding that has always characterized Menuck's bands.

The aforementioned riff-based "I Built Myself a Metal Bird" gives listeners enough direct incentive to stick around, but it's not even the standout. SMZ is more in its element when building near-silence into a swooping crescendo on "I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds." This willingness to try something new without compromising a unique sound is what ranks this album right alongside 2005's Horses in the Sky as the only SMZ albums that live up to Godspeed's legacy.

The real high point is the chilling "Kollaps Tradicional (Bury 3 Dynamos)" which finds Menuck's guitar (the lone electric instrument amongst the strings and drums) tearing ferociously through an impossible polyrhythm with typical apocalyptic pizzazz.

The hollow mourning of "'Piphany Rambler" is the only true post-rock moment on Kollaps, and without it you have the first perfect album co-signed by Menuck in a decade. Still, three sides out of four simultaneously showcase Menuck's strained voice and his band's proficiency. While nothing will fully get SMZ out from Godspeed's shadow, this comes close. At the very least, it should win new converts just in time for the long-awaited reunion.

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